Corinthian spirit

BLUE PLAQUE HONOURS GROUNDBREAKING WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TEAM WHO WON WORLD AND EUROPEAN CUPS

- ETHAN DAVIES

UNSUNG Mancunian footballing heroes finally got the recognition they deserve after a plaque was unveiled for Manchester Corinthians.

The Corinthians, which started out in 1949, were a women’s football team that was hugely successful, playing as the unofficial England side in a European Cup and World Cup – winning both. The team trained at Fog Lane Park in Didsbury.

For much of their existence, women’s football was banned, in effect, as female teams were prevented from playing on Football League grounds, or pitches owned by clubs affiliated to the FA. The 50-year-long prohibition was only lifted in 1971.

That did not stop the Corinthians, however, who played to crowds of more than 60,000 on their trips abroad. They would play as the unofficial England side, and won a major European tournament in Germany in the late 1950s, and were supported on their travels by legendary City men’s goalkeeper Bert Trautmann.